Even though it is time consuming, I love to change my bulletin boards at least once a month because both the students and their families take great pride in seeing the children's work up. Plus, I am a huge advocate for creating a warm, friendly, positive learning environment and this is one way to achieve that!
One of the best things I've ever done was to plan out what I will have up on at least one bulletin board for every month before school even starts. Having a "rough draft" ready to go in August always helps me organize and plan my lessons better. PLUS it is a huge time saver and I'm not scrambling to think of what cute things to put up.
I do my best to have a bulletin board/wall space for every subject (student writer's wall, math wall, art and writing/social studies/science connection). I think it is one of the best ways to show what the class is learning!
This month I will be putting up one of my all time favorite bulletin boards.
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I really love this one because I'm able to touch upon so many standards and it's so stinkin' cute! The kids are able to practice fine motor skills by threading yarn through the holes of the stockings. I take pictures of the kids wearing cute hats/headbands and glue them on so that it becomes a great keepsake. We also do some great interactive writing in small groups (I'll have to do another post about how I do small group interactive writing...but I digress) and ask Santa questions about what we have always wondered about him (kids are so used to telling Santa what they want that I wanted to emphasize the importance of getting to know Santa vs. just asking for material things from him). Those writings are what I put on my bulletin board. We also do individual letters and I "mail" those out in time for the kids to all get a response from Santa.
Here is another bulletin board I love to put up.
With everything going on in the world right now, I think this is an important topic to discuss even more so. I love to read Todd Parr's "The Peace Book" as well as "What Does Peace Feel Like?" by Vladimir Radunsky. In "What Does Peace Feel Like?" children from all over the world use their five sense to describe what they think would look, feel, smell, taste, and sound like. It is always amazing what the children come up with. I let them try to phonetically write what they want to say and then type it out correctly for the bulletin board. How adorable and profound is it for a child to say "Peace is cats and dogs laying in a bed?!" This is why I love teaching kindergarten and first grade!
Because I also talk about various holidays, I also like to put art work that reflects the different cultures we discuss at this time. I like to read "The Legend of the Poinsettia" by Tomie Depaola and do this fun painting craft with my kids. I can't remember who I got this idea from...it was way before pinterest but I do remember seeing it on someone's blog over 10 years ago! I plan to do it again this year and I promise I will have better, updated photos to come!
Well...that pretty much sums up what I have planned for bulletin boards this month. If I get to do something new...which is quite possible I'll be sure to blog about it soon! Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!
